Need idea's for shop heat

[Unstyled G Guy]

I have a small 24'x24' shop that I use to work on my pulling tractor and other things. Its big enough for the things that I want to work on. Today my insurance company said that I had to remove the wood furnace that I used for heat due to the fire hazard. This didn't really bother me because it was to small to heat the place anyways.

I have plenty of access to firewood and don't mind cutting it at all. Only problem is that after looking at some outdoor wood burner's it seems that they are a bit out of my price range. Natural gas isn't really available and neither is propane. Wood like to continue to use firewood.

Does anyone out there know of a cheap (probably not the right word to use) outdoor wood burner that I could buy? Or maybe some idea's on how to make a home made one that works decent? only has to heat less than 600 square feet.

Thanks in advance
 

[Goose]

Don't know how they treat shops, but the insurance companies I work with will insure residential wood stoves only if they're UL approved and installed according to manufacturer's specs.
 

[NCWayne]

If I were you I'd find another insurance company and tell the ones that think a properly used wood heater is a fire hazard to kiss my a$$. Now it it's a homemade 55 gallon barrely type of deal that's rusted through in half a dozen places I could understand their concern. Thing is buildings were heated with wood, coal, etc and didn't burn down, for hundreds of years before the idiot telling you not to burn one was even a gleam in his daddys eye. What makes a properly piped stove, that's within code (making an assumption that yours is), any different now than then????? Given your situation I can't see where you have alot of choice but to bow to them and kiss their a$$, or exercise your right to tell them to kiss your's and find someone that uses a bit of common sense instead of getting on a power trip about something that they have had no problem with for a number of years, but now have decided it's a problem for them and want to make it one for you too....

Personally when my long time insurance company sent someone out to my place to roam around, without me home, and then started telling me that I needed this and that to be within their guidelines, or they'd drop me,(((after me paying them for coverage for nearly 15 years without any real changes to anything they said they now didn't like))). Needless to say, I started shopping around. I wound up with another company, and better coverage on my house. I had my service truck through the company already so I went ahead and checked on bundling everything, house, personal vehicles, and my work truck. I wound up saving nearly 800 per year. The difference is my agents are from the local community, and know that they have to use a little common sense when it comes to whats important/OK, and what isn't. In other words unless your running a meth lab surrounded by vicious attack dogs, they really couldn't care less what you do as long as it's 'legal'.
 

[Bob in SD]

When I installed the woodburner in my house I called up and asked the insurance guy for a discount, figuring if I lose electric the pipes won't freeze. He didn't give me a discount, but he didn't have the nerve to try to raise it.
 

[Stephen Newell]

If the plan is to heat the shop and also to appease the insurance company, I would find out what kind of heat the insurance carrier would allow. You could put in some other type of heat and they could tell you to take it out also. Generally if you have flammables they require electric heat. If you keep a lot of flammable paints they may require you to use water radiators and the boiler be in another building.
 

[JDseller]

Look at the free standing outside hot air wood furnaces. I know of several around me that they went about ten feet out from the house/garage/shop and build a little shed or lean to. Then just ran a hot air supply and a cold air return to the free standing wood stove. Wrapped the air ducts with insulation and your good to go.

TSC and Farm & Fleet carry some cheaper models. You just will have to make the duct work and shroud.

Not very many insurance companies will approve a flame type of heater in a shop. They are afraid of explosions from fumes.You may be across whole building from the stove washing some parts in something flammable and the fumes run along the floor and BOOM!!!!

 

[Dick2]

Some money to a couple executives at UL will buy approval for whatever you want to market. BTDT; I don't trust anything with a UL tag on it!
 

[WvaJim]

Had the same problem, insurance, and I had an old coal stove, was getting old anyway. Installed 2 of these in my shop. I just want the chill off, and it cost a little, but cleaner, no hassle, no mess, and it doesn"t seem to cost an arm and a leg like most people think. Of course I don"t heat it all the time and I don"t like it real warm when I"m working in the winter.
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[bill b va]

if your shop is not attached to your house and is far enough away not to affect your house if burned i would drop the insurane on the shop and keep on burning wood . insurance companies are like the government one size fits all .
 

[36 Coupe]

My wood fired cook stove is over 100 years old,not UL rated.My Mid Moe was one the first wood burning stoves to get UL rating.Bougtht mine before the UL BS.On a trip with my wife driving I noticed just about every house has a wood pile ..Oil is 3.65 a gallon here.The average house in Maine uses 1000 gallons per year.I used 600 gallons last winter.Son in law just put in a pellet stove.
 

[36 Coupe]

Went thru the same crap from an Insurance co taking photos.Wanted to cancel me because the house needed painting and the was some moss on the roof.Forced to have farm ins.I have one cow, 4 hens and 2 roosters now.They wanted me to stop using my TV shop because of increased risk.Asked them How I could afford their rip off prices if I couldnt use my shop.Company I had for 30 years sold out and quit selling farm ins.Had a job finding a new insurer.Got Agway ins for about 10 years.Good company,after the 98 ice storm the sent us 500 BUCK CHECK.All customers got the check, claim or not.Then they sold to Countryway INS.Nasty CO, if you are stuck with them you are in deep sht.
 

[showcrop]

Propane is available everywhere. I have a 40x50x17 shop that I heat for $400.00 a year with a wall mount catalytic propane unit. I have an inner room 16x22x10 where the heater is, that I keep at 50 degrees, and the main part stays above 40 just from what escapes from the inner room. I am in frigid NH.
 

[Unstyled G Guy]

Shop technically is my dad's. At one point it was a 24'x48' three car garage that belonged to my grandpa. When dad bought the farm he never used the garage so I cleaned it up and turned half of it into a shop with a wall midway thru it. Half of the garage is used to store 3 old john deere's and the other half is my shop. We've been using the same insurance for a while for all our farm equipment and house. To be honest dad didn't like the indoor wood furnace either so it was going to have to leave at some point.

Still haven't found an affordable outdoor wood furnace yet
 

[Mike (WA)]

I bought a cheap mobile home electric furnace ($150 new, IIRC) for my shop. It discharges out the bottom, so I built a little pedestal for it to sit on, and directed the air to blow past my woodstove. Once the stove is burning well, I switch the furnace to blower only.

The furnace alone should heat your 24 X 24 just fine.
 

[GordoSD]

Hang a 50K BTU propane Reznor heater in a corner and be done with it. I heat a well insulated 40x 72x12 all winter long in SD for less than 500 dollars.